GENEVA, Oct 19 (AFP): More than 100 million extremely poor people in Africa are threatened by accelerating climate change that could also melt away the continent's few glaciers within two decades, a UN report warned on Tuesday.
In a report ahead of the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow, the UN highlighted Africa's "disproportionate vulnerability" last year from food insecurity, poverty and population displacement.
"By 2030, it is estimated that up to 118 million extremely poor people will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat in Africa, if adequate response measures are not put in place," said Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, commissioner for rural economy and agriculture at the African Union Commission.
The extremely poor are those who live on less than US $1.90 per day, according to the report coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
"In sub-Saharan Africa, climate change could further lower gross domestic product by up to 3% by 2050," Sacko said.
"Not only are physical conditions getting worse, but also the number of people being affected is increasing," she said in the foreword.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said that last year Africa saw temperatures continue to increase, "accelerating sea-level rise" as well as extreme weather events like floods, landslides and droughts, all indicators of climate change.
"The rapid shrinking of the last remaining glaciers in eastern Africa, which are expected to melt entirely in the near future, signals the threat of imminent and irreversible change to the Earth system," Taalas said.
Last year Africa's land mass and waters warmed more rapidly than the world average, the report said.
The 30-year warming trend from 1991-2020 was above that of the 1961-1990 period in all of Africa's regions.
The rate in sea level rise along the tropical coasts and the south Atlantic as well as along the Indian Ocean was higher than the world average. Though too small to serve as significant water reserves, Africa's glaciers have high tourism and scientific value and yet are retreating at a rate higher than the global average.
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